The present invention relates to a broadcast system providing broadcast services in which program guide information is multiplexed with audio/video data. More specifically, the present invention relates to a program guide information collecting/transmitting system which transmits program guide information of each broadcaster to other broadcasters. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a program guide information producing apparatus of each broadcaster which produces the program guide information. Especially, the present invention assures reliable broadcasting of program guide information in each broadcaster even when the transmission of program guide information has failed.
A conventional television schedule information transmission and utilization system and process is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,198 or in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,274.
In general, the digital broadcasting uses the MPEG2 technique to transmit audio/video signals. The MPEG2 technique is used for packet multiplexing a plurality of audio/video signals into a single transport stream (TS) which is aired. In this case, the transport stream (TS) includes program guide information in addition to audio/video data. More specifically, the program guide information is constituted by the PSI (Program Specific Information) for selecting the MPEG2 regulated programs and supplementary information (SI) required in constituting a program guide table (EPG) which is regulated by the ARIB (Association of Radio Industries and Business: which is an association for standardizing the domestic broadcasting system). The program guide table (EPG) is described in a sectional format table.